I bought an MSI lightning GTX 580 for a second machine. This thing hits a brick wall at a pedestrian 960Mhz core no matter how much voltage I give it (1.2V+).

Has anyone else had better luck? Sure seems like a low over clock for a card designed for "LN2". My four Palit 3GB GTX 580's will run all day long at 1000+ Mhz with only 1.15 volts.

The card runs pretty darn cool but I am seriously not impressed with this over clock capability. Eight months after reference GTX 580's release and this thing is slower when over clocked and costs more.

960 core on air isn't bad compared to 1000 on water for reference cards, can the reference do 960 on air?
Ln2 is different, would likely do 1200 core or more at 1.2V with room to go higher without any modding.

Ya some reference cards reach 960Mhz+ easy on air. I was expecting a bit more than 960Mhz out of this super over clockers card. Especially with the temps so low (60-65C). There is no way this GPU is binned as 1.2V can't get more than a measly 960Mhz.